Verizon CFO: Hurricane, Strike Proved Costly

Sep 16, 2011

It's been a difficult last few weeks for the second-largest phone company in the U.S., as Verizon Communications Inc. CFO recently said the impact of Hurricane Irene coupled with a strike by many of its employees cost up to $250 million this quarter, according to Bloomberg.

The news source reports that approximately 45,000 Verizon employees went on strike between August 7 and August 22, with Hurricane Irene driving up the East Coast just days after the strike concluded.

Fran Shammo, the finance boss of the telecommunications giant, spoke at the recent Bank of America Corporation conference in California, admitting that the double whammy of the strike and severe storm took its toll on the company.

"The catastrophic event has really taken an impact," Shammo said of the hurricane. "Putting that all together, where we stand today we are two to three weeks from getting the repair and maintenance flows back to normal."

According to The Wall Street Journal, Shammo added that the hurricane and the strike also contributed to the company being up to 100 days behind in terms of FiOS installations.